Overview
This unit aims to develop knowledge and understanding of the science and instrumentation of clinical ultrasound to enable you to practically produce and optimise sonographic images to support clinical decision making. The unit emphasis will be on image optimisation, safety and quality assurance. This unit will form the foundation from which you will build image acquisition, recognition and assessment skills as part of the Graduate Certificate in Clinical Ultrasound.
Details
Pre-requisites or Co-requisites
There are no requisites for this unit.
Important note: Students enrolled in a subsequent unit who failed their pre-requisite unit, should drop the subsequent unit before the census date or within 10 working days of Fail grade notification. Students who do not drop the unit in this timeframe cannot later drop the unit without academic and financial liability. See details in the Assessment Policy and Procedure (Higher Education Coursework).
Offerings For Term 3 - 2024
Attendance Requirements
All on-campus students are expected to attend scheduled classes - in some units, these classes are identified as a mandatory (pass/fail) component and attendance is compulsory. International students, on a student visa, must maintain a full time study load and meet both attendance and academic progress requirements in each study period (satisfactory attendance for International students is defined as maintaining at least an 80% attendance record).
Recommended Student Time Commitment
Each 6-credit Postgraduate unit at CQUniversity requires an overall time commitment of an average of 12.5 hours of study per week, making a total of 150 hours for the unit.
Class Timetable
Assessment Overview
Assessment Grading
This is a graded unit: your overall grade will be calculated from the marks or grades for each assessment task, based on the relative weightings shown in the table above. You must obtain an overall mark for the unit of at least 50%, or an overall grade of 'pass' in order to pass the unit. If any 'pass/fail' tasks are shown in the table above they must also be completed successfully ('pass' grade). You must also meet any minimum mark requirements specified for a particular assessment task, as detailed in the 'assessment task' section (note that in some instances, the minimum mark for a task may be greater than 50%). Consult the University's Grades and Results Policy for more details of interim results and final grades.
All University policies are available on the CQUniversity Policy site.
You may wish to view these policies:
- Grades and Results Policy
- Assessment Policy and Procedure (Higher Education Coursework)
- Review of Grade Procedure
- Student Academic Integrity Policy and Procedure
- Monitoring Academic Progress (MAP) Policy and Procedure - Domestic Students
- Monitoring Academic Progress (MAP) Policy and Procedure - International Students
- Student Refund and Credit Balance Policy and Procedure
- Student Feedback - Compliments and Complaints Policy and Procedure
- Information and Communications Technology Acceptable Use Policy and Procedure
This list is not an exhaustive list of all University policies. The full list of University policies are available on the CQUniversity Policy site.
Feedback, Recommendations and Responses
Every unit is reviewed for enhancement each year. At the most recent review, the following staff and student feedback items were identified and recommendations were made.
Feedback from Student feedback
Some online quiz questions needed more context added.
Provide more context to some online quiz questions to assist students interpreting quiz questions.
- Apply the knowledge of physical principles of diagnostic ultrasound to the acquisition and optimisation of sonographic imaging
- Interpret the cause of imaging artifacts and use problem solving skills to reduce and overcome these artifacts on real time sonographic imaging using all modes of ultrasound
- Discuss the bioeffects and safety issues associated with diagnostic medical sonography and how these can be managed.
Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Learning Outcomes
| Assessment Tasks | Learning Outcomes | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | |
| 1 - Online Quiz(zes) - 40% | |||
| 2 - Online Test - 60% | |||
Alignment of Graduate Attributes to Learning Outcomes
| Graduate Attributes | Learning Outcomes | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | |
| 1 - Knowledge | |||
| 2 - Communication | |||
| 3 - Cognitive, technical and creative skills | |||
| 4 - Research | |||
| 5 - Self-management | |||
| 6 - Ethical and Professional Responsibility | |||
| 7 - Leadership | |||
| 8 - Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Cultures | |||
Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Graduate Attributes
| Assessment Tasks | Graduate Attributes | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | |
| 1 - Online Quiz(zes) - 40% | ||||||||
| 2 - Online Test - 60% | ||||||||
Textbooks
There are no required textbooks.
IT Resources
- CQUniversity Student Email
- Internet
- Unit Website (Moodle)
All submissions for this unit must use the referencing style: Vancouver
For further information, see the Assessment Tasks.
k.russo@cqu.edu.au
Module/Topic
Pulse echo principle and sound parameters part 1.
- Physics principle basics explained
- Pulse echo principle
- Sound parameters.
Chapter
Lectures and notes provided
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Pulse echo principles and sound parameters part 2.
- Pulsed ultrasound
- PRP
- PRF
- PD
- DF
- SPL
- Bandwidth.
Chapter
Lectures and notes provided
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Reflection of sound and acoustic impedance.
Chapter
Lectures and notes provided
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Ultrasound transducers.
Chapter
Lectures and notes provided
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Ultrasound imaging resolution.
- Spatial resolution
- Contrast resolution
- Temporal resolution.
Chapter
Lectures and notes provided
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Doppler ultrasound part 1.
Chapter
Lectures and notes provided
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Doppler ultrasound part 2
Haemodynamics.
Chapter
Lectures and notes provided
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
No new content.
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
No new content.
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Ultrasound imaging artifacts.
Chapter
Lectures and notes provided
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Bioeffects associated with diagnostic medical ultrasound.
Chapter
Lectures and notes provided
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Advancements in ultrasound imaging and image optimisation.
Chapter
Lectures and notes provided
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Bringing the physics together.
Chapter
Lectures and notes provided
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Revision and online test.
Chapter
Lectures and notes provided
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
This unit is delivered completely online. Your unit coordinator is Dr Kate Russo (k.russo@cqu.edu.au). Online tutorials will be organised throughout the term at a negotiated time to suit students and unit coordinator.
1 Online Quiz(zes)
The online quiz consists of multi-choice questions. It will assess you on unit content related to weeks one to five.
Some calculations may be required, so you will require a calculator to complete this quiz.
You will be required to select the most appropriate and correct answer from a selection of possible answers in relation to the question asked.
You will require internet access to complete this online quiz.
You will have 40 minutes to complete the test.
Once it has been started, it cannot be paused, or re-started. It is open book but must be completed without the assistance of anyone else.
The quiz will open 12th Jan 9 am, 2025 and close at 19th Jan 23:59 pm, 2025 (end of week 9) AEST.
1
Other
Note: The quiz opens 12 Jan 2025 9 am and will close at Sunday 19th Jan 2025 at 11:59 pm AEST.
Week 11 Friday (31 Jan 2025)
via Moodle
Questions will be related to content of week 1 to week 5 of this unit.
- Apply the knowledge of physical principles of diagnostic ultrasound to the acquisition and optimisation of sonographic imaging
- Interpret the cause of imaging artifacts and use problem solving skills to reduce and overcome these artifacts on real time sonographic imaging using all modes of ultrasound
- Knowledge
- Cognitive, technical and creative skills
- Ethical and Professional Responsibility
2 Online Test
This online test will assess your understanding of all content covered in the unit (weeks 1 to 11).
The questions will include a combination of short answer questions and multi-choice questions.
You will require internet access to complete this online test.
You will have 60 minutes to complete the test.
Once it has been started, it cannot be paused or re-started.
It is open book but must be completed without the assistance of anyone else.
The test will open 2nd Feb, 9 am 2025 and close on Sunday 9th Feb 2025 11:59 pm
Exam Week Monday (10 Feb 2025)
via Moodle
Short answer questions will require typed responses which will be assessed according to:
- use of appropriate sonographic physics terminology
- correct relevance of response to the question asked
- adequate detail provided in the answer to demonstrate a depth of understanding of sonographic physics concepts and their practical application.
- Apply the knowledge of physical principles of diagnostic ultrasound to the acquisition and optimisation of sonographic imaging
- Interpret the cause of imaging artifacts and use problem solving skills to reduce and overcome these artifacts on real time sonographic imaging using all modes of ultrasound
- Discuss the bioeffects and safety issues associated with diagnostic medical sonography and how these can be managed.
- Knowledge
- Communication
- Cognitive, technical and creative skills
- Ethical and Professional Responsibility
As a CQUniversity student you are expected to act honestly in all aspects of your academic work.
Any assessable work undertaken or submitted for review or assessment must be your own work. Assessable work is any type of work you do to meet the assessment requirements in the unit, including draft work submitted for review and feedback and final work to be assessed.
When you use the ideas, words or data of others in your assessment, you must thoroughly and clearly acknowledge the source of this information by using the correct referencing style for your unit. Using others’ work without proper acknowledgement may be considered a form of intellectual dishonesty.
Participating honestly, respectfully, responsibly, and fairly in your university study ensures the CQUniversity qualification you earn will be valued as a true indication of your individual academic achievement and will continue to receive the respect and recognition it deserves.
As a student, you are responsible for reading and following CQUniversity’s policies, including the Student Academic Integrity Policy and Procedure. This policy sets out CQUniversity’s expectations of you to act with integrity, examples of academic integrity breaches to avoid, the processes used to address alleged breaches of academic integrity, and potential penalties.
What is a breach of academic integrity?
A breach of academic integrity includes but is not limited to plagiarism, self-plagiarism, collusion, cheating, contract cheating, and academic misconduct. The Student Academic Integrity Policy and Procedure defines what these terms mean and gives examples.
Why is academic integrity important?
A breach of academic integrity may result in one or more penalties, including suspension or even expulsion from the University. It can also have negative implications for student visas and future enrolment at CQUniversity or elsewhere. Students who engage in contract cheating also risk being blackmailed by contract cheating services.
Where can I get assistance?
For academic advice and guidance, the Academic Learning Centre (ALC) can support you in becoming confident in completing assessments with integrity and of high standard.
What can you do to act with integrity?
